Sixty-eight percent of district technology officers in a recent CoSN survey said their school systems don’t have the bandwidth to meet connectivity needs, but the toolkit is an attempt to give those technology leaders guidance as they try and meet ever-increasing bandwidth demands.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 2014 took major steps to update the E-rate program, including increasing its annual funding to $3.9 billion, up from $2.4 billion. In 2016, E-rate applicants can start applying for discounts for dark fiber and self-provisioned fiber, which, ed-tech stakeholders say, gives schools more flexibility as they try to meet connectivity demands.

“Fiber is generally accepted to be the only communications medium that can meet the bandwidth needs for all but the smallest school systems, but how schools acquire fiber connectivity in the most cost-effective manner will depend on the unique circumstances of each district,” the authors write.